MONTGOMERY - Voting along party lines, the Legislature's joint redistricting committee today rejected a plan by Democrats to allow citizens instead of legislators to decide new district lines for the next Legislature, state Board of Education and congressional seats.

House Democratic Minority Leader Craig Ford of Gadsden submitted a plan that would have had a nine-member reapportionment commission appointed two each by the president pro-tem of the Senate, the House speaker and the minority leaders of the House and Senate.

The chair would have been selected by the eight appointed members.

Ford's proposal was shot down, however, on a 15-5 vote by the 22-member committee, 14 of which are Republicans.

Ford's reapportionment committee guidelines also included provisions that would disallow diluting the voting strength of minorities and using prison inmates in calculating district population, make Board of Education and congressional districts "contiguous and compact," draw House and Senate seats on the basis of total population and draw lines that don't necessarily favor incumbents.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, Senate chairman of the Reapportionment Committee, reminded Ford that the guidelines used by Republicans were the same as those used previously by Democrats, modified only by subsequent court orders.

"We made three minor changes to what the Democrats used 10 years ago to reapportion the state," he said.

The Legislature will take a two-week break, starting Tuesday, for a series of statewide hearings on reapportionment for congressional districts and the state school board. The legislative redistricting will be taken up during the 2012 session.

The first public hearing will be Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. That hearing had originally been set for noon on Tuesday, but the time and date were changed after an objection from Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, a member of the committee.

"That isn't going to work," he said. "I want participation from the public and a mid work day meeting at the VBC is not acceptable," said Holtzclaw. "I want a wide attendance of folks to express whatever concerns they have with congressional redistricting. We need to make sure we take all that into consideration."

Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Albertville, also a member of the committee, said it was important to move the meeting to the evening because it affects the 4th and 5th congressional districts.

The committee will also meet at 6:30 p.m. for all but one of the other hearings. They will be held on May 10 at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center; May 11 at Tillman's Corner Community Center in Mobile; May 12 at the State House; at the St. James Hotel in Selma; and at the State House on May 18 at 2 p.m.